VMWare Player Installation in Ubuntu 11.04/12.04/12.10/13.10

Installation

1. Prepare

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r` -y
sudo apt-get install make -y
sudo apt-get install gcc -y

2. Download vmware player

a@a:~$ cd Downloads
a@a:~/Downloads$ ls
                 VMware-Player-4.0.2-591240.i386.bundle
a@a:~/Downloads$ sudo sh VMware-Player-4.0.2-591240.i386.bundle

????

sudo sh vmware-installer -u vmware-player

The installed application can be found under:

Applications -> System Tools -> VMWare Player

Deinstallation

sudo vmware-installer -u vmware-player

Troubleshooting

1. Missing .bundle file

a@a:~/Downloads$ ls
VMware-Player-4.0.2-591240.i386.txt

Reason: the download was saved as by .txt by the browser, e.g. Google Chrome

Fix:

mv VMware-Player-4.0.2-591240.i386.txt VMware-Player-4.0.2-591240.i386.bundle

2. pixmap warning

a@a:/home/a/Downloads# sudo sh VMware-Player-4.0.2-591240.i386.bundle -u vmware-player
Extracting VMware Installer...done.
(vmware-installer.py:12308): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "pixmap",
(vmware-installer.py:12308): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "pixmap",
(vmware-installer.py:12308): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "pixmap",
(vmware-installer.py:12308): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "pixmap",

Problem Fix

sudo apt-get install gtk2-engines-pixbuf -y

Workaround

Applications -> System Tools -> System Settings -> Appearance -> Theme -> High Contrast

The Ubuntu Ambiance and Radiance Themes do not produce this warning.
However these themes are quite ugly, so rather the real solution

3. root access is required

a@a:~$ vmware-installer -u vmware-player
root access is required for the operations you have chosen
a@a:~$ sudo vmware-installer -u vmware-player

References

1. https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/p/activate.php?p=player&lp=1

2. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1364485

3. http://yoodey.com/solving-gtk-warning-unable-locate-theme-engine-modulepath-pixmap

4. http://askubuntu.com/questions/2341/how-to-get-rid-of-odd-error-line-when-alttabing-away-from-an-emacs-launched-in/4924#4924

5. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VMware/Server